I'll Give You the Sun

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways…until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor.

Holding Up the Universe

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed "America's Fattest Teen". But no one's taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom's death, she's been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now Libby's ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer.

All the Bright Places

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom.

When We Collided

Seventeen-year-old Jonah Daniels has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life, and only one thing has ever changed: His father used to be alive, and now he is not. With a mother lost in a deep bout of depression, Jonah and his five siblings struggle to keep up their home and the restaurant their dad left behind. But at the start of summer, a second change rolls in: Vivi Alexander, the new girl in town.

Mosquitoland

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in Northern Ohio to the wastelands of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland. So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way.

The Sun Is Also a Star

I'm a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I'm definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is 12 hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won't be my story.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control in this heartfelt novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series. What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?

My Heart and Other Black Holes

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

Everything, Everything

This innovative, heartfelt debut novel tells the story of a girl who's literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she's ever known.

The Problem with Forever

For some people, silence is a weapon. For Mallory "Mouse" Dodge, it's a shield. Growing up, she learned that the best way to survive was to say nothing. And even though it's been four years since her nightmare ended, she's beginning to worry that the fear that holds her back will last a lifetime. Now, after years of homeschooling with loving adoptive parents, Mallory must face a new milestone - spending her senior year at a public high school.

What to Say Next

When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David's blunt honesty - in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit's attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad's tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they'll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?

Never Always Sometimes

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined never to be cliché high school kids. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school. Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like number five, never dye your hair a color of the rainbow, or number seven, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule number eight, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It's either that or break rule number ten, never date your best friend.

Fangirl

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life - and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow Series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go.

Our Chemical Hearts

Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him - at least not yet. Instead he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college, and on finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year, and he knows everything's about to change.

Tell Me Three Things

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least that's what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she's thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn't mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don't cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team - the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team's summer training camp is Hermione's last and marks the beginning of the end of...she's not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

180 Seconds

Some people live their entire lives without changing their perspective. For Allison Dennis, all it takes is 180 seconds...After a life spent bouncing from one foster home to the next, Allison is determined to keep others at arm's length. Adopted at 16, she knows better than to believe in the permanence of anything. But as she begins her third year in college, she finds it increasingly difficult to disappear into the white noise pouring from her earbuds.

You Know Me Well: A Novel

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed. That is until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend, Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition)

Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time - when not playing video games and avoiding Earl's terrifying brothers - making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don't make them for other people. Until Rachel.

Every Last Word

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has purely obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off. Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Today is Leonard Peacock's birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather's P-38 pistol. But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart - obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school's class on the Holocaust.

One True Loves

In her 20s Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Carry On

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon's face.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship - the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Amazon Customer says:"One of the best novels I've listened to in years."

Publisher's Summary

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life — and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie’s struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

The first word that comes to mind after I finished listening to this book is: WOW.

This book was recommended to me last year by a friend. She did warn me beforehand that it was sad, so I did have a bit of an idea of what I was getting myself into???

So being the person I am, I purchased a copy of the book when it was on sale, and put it on my shelf to read at a later date. Time passed and I had to use up some of my credits on Audible.com so I bought a audio copy of it as well.

Fast forward another year or so after that and I find myself sitting at work sick of the music I have on my iPod so I switch over to books. This is the one I chose to listen to.

From the first ten minutes of listening I was hooked. In tears, but hooked. I understand Lennie more now, being on the other end of loss then I think I would have before. Her heart break at losing her sister, the anger and the pain she feels.

I understand Lennie's feelings of need. Of the desire for human contact. For her endless feelings of betrayal towards her sister.

It's very real to me.

In a lot of ways she is me.

I heard the words from this book and they echoed with what I was feeling, and how I felt for those months after I was left behind too. How I desperately needed an outlet and sometimes the written word was all I had because the spoken words wouldn't come out of my mouth. Some parts of the book took that hole in my heart and seemed to rip it open again and it's like the last 3 years vanish and the sad is all new again. But while it opened a lot of heartache, it also helped heal over some too. The climax and resolution of the story were so beautifully crafted, then in some ways there were those "ah ha" moments reminding me to think of others because my grief is no more or less then theirs and everyone has lost out. Don't forget the others.

I truly loved this book. I would recommend it to others who would enjoy a good teen romance with a lot of sad mixed in??? or perhaps it???s more of a walk through grief with a little teen romance mixed in. Either way you look at it The Sky Is Everywhere was just a good book.

Just a warning, there is quite a bit of language (meaning the BIG F word) throughout the book, but honestly its probably a lot less then what some of us hear on a daily basis.

???grief is a house where the chairs have forgotten how to hold us the mirrors how to reflect us the walls how to contain us

grief is a house that disappears each time someone knocks at the door or rings the bell a house that blows into the air at the slightest gust that buries itself deep in the ground while everyone is sleeping

grief is a house where no on can protect you where the younger sister will grow older than the older one where the doors no longer let you in or out??? ??? Jandy Nelson

Bailey died and sister, Lennie (John Lennon) is left to navigate a lonely existence without her. She finds herself in a unique position grieving with Bailey's boyfriend and is struck by a new boy at school. Coming of age, she learns secrets about her sister, absentee mother, grandmother, and of course about her own wishes and desires.

Jandy Nelson is a wonderful author. This book is well written with thoughtfully crafted characters you will care about. It's a good precursor to her huge hit, "I'll Give You the Sun".

This is the story of Lennie, a teenage girl who is coming of age after the untimely death of her older sister. Unsure how to cope, Lennie ends up in a passionate solace seeking romance with her sister's boyfriend. This relationship is further complicated by the arrival of the boy of Lennie's dreams. The novel takes you along with Lennie on a sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking journey as she struggles to find her place in a world without her sister.

The character development in this book is phenomenal. Lennie's voice is brave and humorous. Julia Whelan perfectly captures this voice - from Lennie's teenage sarcasm to her deepest longings. The secondary characters, Lennie's grandmother and her pot-smoking Uncle Big, lend heartwarming charm to the narrative as they support Lennie the best way they know how.

If you like gritty young adult novels that don't shy away from mature content, you will love The Sky is Everywhere. It is written for teenagers but its themes of falling in love and coping with death will resonate with readers of all ages.

This is an amazing story...a beautifully-written tale of one young woman's jouney through loss and grief and out the other side to the path of her own life. I loved the main character John "Lennie" Lennon. Her friends and quirky family are awesome characters. The narration by Julia Whelan perfectly captures the heart, emotions, and attitude of Lennie and all the other characters. A story that is heart-breaking, heart-warming, with touches of poignant humor all at the same time...completely moving. Not to be missed!

I've never felt any desire to write a review until reading Jandy Nelson, and can't convey just how much I love this book. What a perfect balance of poetry, romance, humor and grief. Two days later and I'm still consumed by Lennie and her vivid world. Not just a YA novel, but one for all ages. I'm ready to start it all over again and I'm excited to see what her next novel brings.

I kind of consider Jandy Nelson as my secret book crush, sort of like liking Matchbox Twenty. Her books are not necessarily literary genius or scholarly. Her stories always end happy, which normally I find disappointing, but I love Nelsons characters so much that I practically beg the ending to be upbeat.

I read I Will Give You The Sun first, so listening to Julia Whelan again was a pleasure. Although somehow she made it feel like I was listening to the same story.

The characters Nelson writes are lovable, sweet, and broken which makes me care about their happiness. Lenn is a girl struggling with unexplainable feelings for her dead sister's boyfriend, Toby, and a new love for Joe. During all of this angsty love, Lenn finds herself pulling away from a family that needs her help to recoup after Bailey's untimely death and tries to discover a way to cope with her mother's absence.

I didn't think it was as eventful as I'll Give You The Sun, nor as enticing as the character switch in narration, but overall I loved this book.

I enjoyed this book immensely! It was a breath of fresh air for me! I bought it from a sale and didn't expect much - never having heard of the author before. The characters were great in my opinion and the story good. The way this book is written is golden! Also the reader did a great job!

If you could sum up The Sky is Everywhere in three words, what would they be?

Grief. Love. Hope.

What other book might you compare The Sky is Everywhere to and why?

"Adios, Nirvana." They are strikingly similar. However, "Sky" has lots more romance and is more serious in tone.

Have you listened to any of Julia Whelan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't, but she did a good job.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No way! It's better to spread it out over time.

Any additional comments?

It's a great book with a lush, literary style--but also a street-smart contemporary voice. I especially like that Lennie did not find her mother--so there is that loose thread, thus avoiding a conventionally neat ending. It's so much better to leave a loose thread, now and then--because that's life.